Shaping Opinion

Author and former “Economic Hit Man” John Perkins joins Tim to talk about his New York Times best-selling book that’s now become a classic. That book is, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: China’s EHM Strategy, Ways to Stop the Global Takeover.” He just released an updated version of the book that covers the tactics that China, the U.S. and other major powers have used to wage economic “warfare” in 2023.

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For the most part, if I were to talk to you about the world’s super powers, you might think I’m talking about armies. Nuclear warheads.  The war machine.  But in 2023, more than ever, the term “super power” may better be described as the countries with the most economic power.

Over the decades, the United States, China, Russia and other smaller countries, mostly from the West, have exerted influence through economic means. But make no mistake, economic warfare brings with it its own forms of brutality.

That’s what will be talking about today with our guest John Perkins. He’s been on the front lines of this and has some stories to tell.

He describes his job as that of an economic hit man.
Links

John Perkins' Website (JohnPerkins.org)
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins (Amazon)

About this Episode’s Guest John Perkins
As Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm, John Perkins advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. He worked directly with heads of state and CEOs of major companies.
John’s classic, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004) spent 73 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been published in more than 35 languages. It was a groundbreaking exposé of the clandestine operations that created the current global crises. The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2016) brought the story of economic hit men and jackal assassins up to date at that time and chillingly home to the U.S. It went on to provide practical strategies for each of us to transform the failing global death economy into a regenerative life economy. The two books have sold more than 1.9 million copies.
In addition to economics, politics and global intrigue, John has also written books on indigenous cultures and what they can teach us about sustainability and transformation, including The World Is As You Dream It, Spirit of the Shuar, and The Stress-Free Habit.
John has lectured at Harvard, Oxford, and more than 50 other universities around the world. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CNN, NPR, A&E, the History Channel, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Der Spiegel, and many other publications, as well as in numerous documentaries including The End of Poverty?, Zeitgeist Addendum, and Apology of an Economic Hit Man.
He is a founder and board member of Dream Change and The Pachamama Alliance, nonprofit organizations devoted to establishing a world that future generations will want to inherit. He was awarded the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace, and Rainforest Action Network Challenging Business As Usual Award, among other accolades.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Princeton professor and author Keith Whittington joins Tim to talk about the current state of free speech, or not-so-free-speech on the American college campus. Keith has a long resume of accomplishments, including the authoring of the award-winning book, “Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech.” But in this episode, we talk about Keith’s role in the formation of a new and already growing organization that champions freedom of speech called the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA).

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There is a growing fear on college campuses among professors and instructors that they could say or do the smallest thing and it could ruin their careers. They could be canceled for using the wrong story or word to illustrate a point while teaching a class.

Something they say or do could be perceived by some students as a triggering factor – something that could trigger some negative emotion that hinders learning.

If you follow the news, or just do a quick Google search, you’ll find stories where educators, or the colleges themselves, were called out by students for perceived lack of sensitivity to certain issues.

It’s stories like those that have created a growing concern among educators that something has to be done to turn the tide. They’re concerned that students and others may have the wrong idea about what a college education is supposed to be about. That college is a place to challenge yourself and be challenged. To investigate, analyze and expose yourself to different ways of thinking, diverse schools of thought. And above all, not to fear such exposure or see it as something to be protected from.

It’s with this in mind, that Professor Keith Whittington of Princeton, and more than 200 other scholars from across America decided to form the AFA.  Keith says the AFA is dedicated to helping college educators, quote – “speak, instruct, and publish without fear of sanction, bullying, punishment or persecution.”
Links

Keith Whittington’s Princeton Home Page
The Academic Freedom Alliance: A Q&A with Keith Whittington, Academe Blog
Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech, by Keith Whittington (Barnes & Noble)
Fresh Hope for Campus Free Speech, New York Post/AP

About this Episode’s Guest Keith Whittington
Keith E. Whittington is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and Chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance. He writes about American constitutional law, politics and history and American political thought. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and Harvard Law School and is a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

He serves on the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, among other outlets, and he is a regular contributor to the Volokh Conspiracy blog. He is the author of several books, including Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech and Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Texas at Austin and completed his Ph.D. in political science at Yale University.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Legendary sports photographer Walter Iooss joins Tim to talk about his life and career that has spanned decades. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated and in many major media outlets and in unforgettable marketing campaigns. If you were to think of an iconic photo from any major American sport from over the past 50 years, there’s a decent chance Walter is the one who captured that image. Walter talks about his life behind the lens, a lens that has captured household names, helped make a few athletes become household names, and even at times when people in his photos were not famous, the image was still…iconic. This episode was first releases April 5, 2021.

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There is a photo from 1988 of Michael Jorden in his red Chicago Bulls uniform that makes it look like he’s defying gravity. Like he’s flying, basketball in hand, somewhere between the foul line and the hoop, ready to slam that ball through the net. If a picture tells 1,000 stories, this one tells 1,001. Did he really take off at the foul line and make it to the hoop in one jump? What does it take to do that? The image is iconic.

There’s another photo from years earlier when New York Jets celebrity quarterback Joe Namath was preparing for the Super Bowl. And by preparing, I mean lounging next to a swimming pool, getting some sun, surrounded by a fans and reporters. Broadway Joe, in swimming trunks, flashing his million-dollar smile. Iconic.

Then there’s that one from the NFC Championship game in January 1982. That’s where Joe Montana tossed the winning pass to Dwight Clark to send the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl. The photo features the exact moment where Clark is at the high point of his jump, catching the football barely in his fingertips, to bring it down with a championship. The photo and the moment have been dubbed, “The Catch.” Iconic.

Those are three iconic images of many that have one thing in common. Walter Iooss. He’s the photographer who sometimes captures iconic moments, and other times, through this artistic eye, he creates them.

Walter has shot photos for Time, Newsweek, New York and People magazines.  He’s done advertising work for brands like Adidas, Pepsi, Gatorade, Fuji and Eastman Kodak.

He’s published many books of his work, but the major constant in his career has been his work for Sports Illustrated. A magazine he started working for in the 1960s, and one he still works for today.

Over the years, he’s shot images for more than 300 of the magazine’s covers.
Links

Walter Iooss, Jr., Website
Christie’s Puts Sports Photography GOAT Walter Iooss Jr. On the Auction Block, Forbes
Walter Iooss: Sports Photography Legend, Shutterbug.com
G.O.A.T.S.: Greatest of All Time, with  Photographer Walter Iooss, ESPN Documentary
Walter Iooss Jr.’s Best Super Bowl Photos, Sports Illustrated

About this Episode’s Guest Walter Iooss Jr.
Widely viewed as one of the greatest sports photographers of our time and called “the poet laureate of sports,” Walter Iooss, Jr.’s photographs have graced the pages of Sports Illustrated, including more than 300 covers, for 58 years. Since the age of 17, Walter has photographed some of the most recognized athletes in sports history, including Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Tiger Woods, and hundreds more. His ability to create beautiful backdrops for his subjects, both action and portraits, changed the definition of what a “good sports photograph” should be.

Walter placed the same care and consciousness from his sports photographs to create Sports Illustrated’s now-legendary swimsuit issues. As in his action shots, his portraits for SI’s legendary swimsuit issues revealed his uncanny sense of graphics and Rembrandt-like reverence for light and shadow. His ability to truly connect with his subjects, athletes, or models, is what helped make Walter the best in the gam...

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Long-time Director of Fallingwater Lynda S. Waggoner joins Tim to discuss the lasting impact Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece at Bear Run has had on how the nation continues to perceive house and home. This episode was originally released April 30, 2018.

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Frank Lloyd Wright was born right after the American Civil War in Wisconsin. He started his career in 1887 and was a well-known architect well into the 20th Century. He was the originator of the organic approach to modern architectural design and construction. By 1934, however, many considered him past his prime. He was in his late 60s, in his third marriage, and there wasn’t in as much demand for new commissions.

The Kaufmann family owned a highly successful department store company in Pittsburgh, and they had a weekend retreat at Bear Run about 90 miles away where the family enjoyed the beauty of nature. One of the key features of the property were the Bear Run water falls.

In 1934, the Kaufmann’s and Frank Lloyd Wright came together to create an architectural masterpiece that continues to remind us of what a house and a home can be.
Links

Fallingwater – Official Site
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation – Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Most Beautiful Work – Smithsonian Magazine
Kahn Academy on Fallingwater
12 Facts You Didn’t Know About Fallingwater – Mental Floss

About this Episode’s Guest Lynda Waggoner



Lynda S. Waggoner


Lynda S. Waggoner, former Vice President of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and Director of Fallingwater, was affiliated with the Frank Lloyd Wright masterwork since first serving as a tour guide during her high school days. She now is widely regarded as one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Fallingwater.

“Lynda Waggoner understands Fallingwater in a way that few others alive do…because she is a direct link to the Kaufmanns and an indirect link to Wright,” wrote American Institute of Architects member Robert Bailey in a review of Waggoner’s book, “Fallingwater: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Romance with Nature.”

Those teenage days at Fallingwater inspired her to study architecture at the University of Kentucky and art history at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned dual degrees in art history and anthropology with summa cum laude honors. Her first professional position was as curator of the Museum Without Walls, originally an outreach program of the Baltimore Museum of Art after which she was named curator of the Jay C. Leff Collection of non Western art. In 1980 she became the first executive director of Touchstone Center for Crafts, now a nationally recognized crafts school. A native of nearby Farmington, Waggoner returned to Fallingwater in 1985 as a curatorial consultant and became full-time curator in 1986. A year later, she was named site administrator in addition to her curator’s role. She was named director in 1996.

Waggoner is past president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, past Vice President of the Greater Pittsburgh Museum Council, past chairman of the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau, and past vice president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums. She currently serves on the Board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Community Foundation of Fayette County and the Advisory Board of Preservation Pennsylvania.

In 2007 she received the “Wright Spirit Award” from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy for her service in the preservation of Wright buildings. In 2004 she was awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal by the Pittsburgh Chapter and in 1997, she was named the Distinguished Alumna Lecturer for the University of Pittsburgh’s Frick Fine Arts School of Art History and Architectural Studies. She has lectured widely both here and abroad including presentations at the White House, The Getty Museum in Los Angles and The National Building Museum i...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Gavin McIlvenna joins Tim on the Centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Gavin is president of the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Army, but one of the more unique experiences he’s had is the time he spent guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery. In this episode, Gavin tells the story behind the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the symbolic and real significance of one of the most hallowed places on American soil. This episode was first releases on June 14, 2021.

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There are places throughout the United States where those who’ve died for their country are remembered with honor and where they remain.

Churchyard cemeteries in places like Boston and Philadelphia to honor the Revolutionary War dead. Or battlefield cemeteries like the one in Gettysburg to honor the fallen during the American Civil War.

But in America’s history, there hadn’t been a single place. A dedicated place to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our freedoms and for the nation.

That changed after World War One.

After the Great War, France and Great Britain decided to select one of their fallen soldiers to represent all of the dead from World War One. They laid an unknown soldier to rest in an honored place on November 11, 1920, just over 100 years ago.

Other nations followed in similar fashion. Portugal, Italy, Belgium. All selected an unknown soldier to receive full military honors and burial at an honored place in those countries.

The commanding general of American forces in France at the time was Brigadier General William Connor. He first heard about the French plans to honor their Unknown Solider during the planning phases. He liked the idea and ran it up the chain, only to be rejected by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General Payton March. That was in 1919. General March felt the Americans would be able to identify all of their own dead, so there wouldn’t be any “unknown soldiers,” and he felt the U.S. had no comparable burial place for a fallen hero that was similar to Westminster Abbey in Great Britain.

But on December 20, 1921, U.S. Congressman Hamilton Fish of New York introduced a resolution that called for the return to the country of an unknown American who was killed during World War One. He wanted to bury a soldier who was killed in France, and then make plans for his burial with full military honors in a tomb that would be constructed at Arlington National Cemetery.

The tomb was built and is now located at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington Cemetery. On November 11, 1921, the body of an unidentified soldier who was killed in France, was laid to rest. He represents all of the unidentified and missing from World War One.

Since that time, an unidentified American service member has been laid to rest at that tomb, with the highest honors, representing World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. One crypt sits empty to represent all those who remain missing.

This year marks the Centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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Links

Arlington National Cemetery
Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
National Commemoration of the Centennial, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard

About this Episode’s Guest Gavin McIlvenna
Sergeant Major (Retired) Gavin L. McIlvenna is the 11th President of the Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (SHGTUS) SGM (Ret) McIlvenna retired from the US ...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Fred Cate joins Tim to talk about how big tech companies could use your personal data without your knowledge or explicit consent and some of the legal issues involved. Fred is vice president for research, a distinguished professor of law and a senior fellow at Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. This espisode was first released April 26, 2021.

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Earlier this month, Alaska was the latest state to take up the issue of consumer data privacy when the state’s governor introduced bills in both legislative chambers.

The two bills – Senate Bill 116 and House Bill 159 – are both called the Consumer Data Privacy Act. They are designed to give individuals the right to know what personal information is being collected about them and request its deletion.

If the bills become law, consumers would be able to opt out of the sale of their personal information. They would be able to learn whether their information has been sold or shared with third parties.

Why is this important?

You know when you log onto your computer or use your smart phone someone is watching. So what? Right?

We all know our data is out there, but just where is there? And who is there?

But, did you ever wonder what is actually happening with your data?

And by data, I don’t just mean your financial transactions, your texts, your tweets, your pictures and your posts. I mean everything.

Not only is your smart phone and your computer tracking you, but it’s making decisions about you, it’s inferring things about you.

It’s judging you. And it could be sharing its conclusions about you with someone else who wants to sell to you. Or sell access to you to yet someone else.

And that’s where it starts to get really interesting. Someone may want you to buy something, or go somewhere, or donate to something, or protest against something, or boycott something, and they may try to maneuver you into doing just that. All without your even realizing it.

Professor Fred Cate of Indiana University is one of the foremost experts on cybersecurity and he specializes in information privacy and the law.
Links

Professor Fred Cate, Indiana University Webpage
Fred Cate, Information Policy Center
Privacy and Freedom, Dr. Alan Westin (Barnes & Noble)
Alaska Governor Introduces Consumer Data Privacy Bill, Law Street
California Consumer Privacy Act, State of California

About this Episode’s Guest Fred Cate
Professor Fred Cate specializes in information privacy and security law issues. He has testified before numerous congressional committees and speaks frequently before professional, industry, and government groups.

In addition to his appointment in the Law School and as Vice President for Research, he is an Adjunct Professor of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. From 2003 to 2014, he served as the founding director of IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research and Information Assurance Education, where he is now a senior fellow.

Professor Cate currently chairs the National Academies’ study on Law Enforcement and Intelligence Access to Encrypted Content, and he is a member of the National Academies’ Forum on Cyber Resilience as well as many other government, industry, and not-for-profit advisory panels. He serves as a senior policy advisor to the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP.

Previously, Professor Cate served as a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention, counsel to the Department of Defense Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, and a member of the National Security Agency’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Panel, the Federal Trade Commission’s Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security,

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Kelley Vlahos joins Tim to talk about how big tech companies are starting to use your data to grade you in ways that may surprise and shock you. The focus of our discussion is your Social Credit Score and how China may be illustrating just how alarming its applications can be. Kelley is a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and editorial director at Responsible Statecraft. She’s written about this population monitoring tool that before now was unthinkable in America. That’s the focus of this episode, which was originally released on May 3, 2021.

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Anyone who buys a car or a house or wants a new credit card is familiar with the financial credit process. You have to build up a track record of paying off your debts in order to obtain good financial credit. Financial credit enables you to borrow money.

A bad financial credit rating can be used by banks and lenders to deny you a loan, which means you can’t buy that house, that car, or get that credit card.

Until now, that was the only credit rating you needed to worry about. But in subtle ways, another credit rating may be creeping into your daily life you may not be so aware of.

It’s called a Social Credit Score. It’s essentially a profile that rates people for better or worse based on everything they do. Every place they go, every rideshare they take, every destination they travel to, every book they buy, every membership, every donation, everything they post online, and, of course, their Internet search history.

Here are a couple simple examples. Every time you take an Uber rideshare, your driver rates you according to a star system. If the driver likes you, you get more stars. If the driver doesn’t like you, you get fewer stars. What you have to do to be liked is up to the driver, not you.

On social media, you learn what information you’re allowed to share and that information – even if it’s legal and non-offensive – that will get you suspended or banned.
Links

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (website)
George Orwell’s Dystopian Nightmare in China, by Kelley Vlahos, American Conservative
The Invisible Shackles of America’s Social Credit System, Human Events
Social Credit Scores are Already Here, The Last American (blog)
China has Started Ranking Citizens with a Creepy ‘Social Credit’ System, Business Insider

About this Episode’s Guest Kelley Vlahos
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos comes to QI from The American Conservative, where for the last three years she served as the magazine’s executive editor and co-host of the Empire Has No Clothes podcast. Before joining TAC in 2017,  Vlahos served as a contributing editor to the magazine, reporting and publishing regular articles on U.S. war policy, civil liberties, foreign policy, veterans, and Washington politics since 2007. She also organized the magazine’s major annual foreign policy conference for the last three years. Prior to that, Vlahos was director of social media and a digital editor at WTOP News in Washington, D.C. from 2013 to 2017.

She spent 15 years as an online political reporter for FOX News at the channel’s Washington D.C. bureau, as well as Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine. She is on the board of PublicSquare.net, a non-profit media project promoting informed Left-Right debate. Her recent media appearances include C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Tucker Carlson Tonight, NPR’s 1A, POTUS on Sirius XM, and Al Jazeera.  Before moving to the nation’s capital, Vlahos earned her degree in Journalism-Mass Media at Central Connecticut State University and worked her way through local and regional newspapers in her home state of Connecticut, including The New Britain Herald and The Torrington Register Citizen.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Author and journalist Michael Dolan joins Tim to tell the story of the American front porch. He’s the editor of American History magazine and the author of a book entitled, “The American Porch: An informal history of an informal place.” In this episode, he talks about how the front porch shaped life in America for well over 200 years. You could say that when it comes to our homes, the front porch was the original social media. This encore episode was originally released May 24, 2021.

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It’s probably something you may not think about much, even if you have one on your home and you walk across it a few times every day. The front porch.

But did you ever wonder what your life would be like if you didn’t have one? Or, on the other hand, if you are one of millions of Americans who don’t have a front porch, did you ever wonder what your life would be like if you did have one?

It’s not an understatement to say that in neighborhoods with front porches, the social dynamics between and among neighbors are different than they are in neighborhoods without them.

And most certainly those same social dynamics are different today, than they were many years ago, when it was just assumed your home would have a front porch, and that would be the place you would spend your time between your private world and the public world.

Michael Dolan is the editor of American History Magazine and the author of the book, “The American Porch.”
Links

The American Porch, by Michael Dolan (Amazon)
American History Magazine, Historynet.com
The Front Porch Campaign, American Heritage Magazine

About this Episode’s Guest Michael Dolan
Michael Dolan is a writer, editor, and musician. He lives in Washington, DC, his hometown. Besides editing American History  magazine, he consults on book manuscripts and documentary television programs, most recently one about wildlife along the Canadian/American border. His articles have run in Smithsonian, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Outside, and The New York Times Magazine, among others. His 1987 Washington City Paper story about Judge Robert Bork’s video rentals caused a furor leading Congress to enact the federal Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. Between 1983 and 1995, he and his wife renovated a 1920s-era bungalow in a DC neighborhood near the Potomac River. The final step of that process replaced a careworn front porch with one that he designed. The results of that project inspired his 2002 book, The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place. Dolan’s porch occasionally is the scene of rehearsals by his band, The Powerful House Ways & Means Committee.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Powerball winner Tim Schultz joins Tim O’Brien to talk about what it’s like to win the lottery, and what you should do if you ever hit the jackpot for that big lottery prize. Tim is a YouTuber and the host of a podcast called Lottery, Dreams and Fortune. While working in a gas station to put himself through college, Tim won the $28 million Powerball prize in 1999 and his life hasn’t been the same since.

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Even if you’re not a gambler, chances are at some point you bought a lottery ticket.

Maybe you don’t buy a ticket that often, but when the jackpot gets up to $100 million, $500 million or even a billion dollars, it gets tempting.

As they say, “You gotta play to win.”

There are two lottery games that seem to draw the most attention for their big jackpots – Powerball and Mega Millions.

Since 2016, there have been six jackpots in America that surpassed $1 billion. Three in the past year alone.

The largest lottery jackpot to date was the Powerball drawing on November 2, 2022. Someone bought a ticket at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena, California, not far from Pasadena. It’s not clear yet whether the winner has claimed the prize, but whoever it is, won over $2 billion before taxes.

The second-biggest jackpot was also a Powerball ticket that was split three ways. On January 13th, 2016, winners came from California, Florida and Tennessee.

The third biggest jackpot was a Mega Millions winner. This time from South Carolina. That person claimed the $1.5 billion jackpot.  We don’t know who it was, but they opted to take a one-time lump sum of $877 million before taxes.

If you’re like me, once you buy that ticket, and up until the drawing, your imagination can run wild. What would you do with all that money?

It’s just that sort of thinking that captures the attention of millions who buy those lottery tickets.

Back in 1999, Tim Schultz was working at a gas station to put himself through college. But then fate happened. Tim sold himself a winning Powerball ticket. The prize was $28 million.

That doesn’t mean he took home all $28 million. While he can’t say how much he did take home all winners have the option of taking a lump sum, which is usually a little more than half of the publicized jackpot. And then there are the taxes. No matter who wins the lottery in a given week, Uncle Sam always gets a cut.

The idea that someone actually gets all that money is one of the biggest myths surrounding the lottery. Tim says there are other myths as well.
Links

Tim Schultz YouTube Channel
Lottery, Dreams and Fortune Podcast, with Tim Schultz (Spotify)
Powerball, website
I'm the Lottery Winner Who Bagged a $28 Million Jackpot, The Sun

About this Episode’s Guest Tim Schultz
Timothy Schultz is a YouTuber and host of the podcast, Lottery, Dreams and Fortune. It features human interest stories of overcoming the odds and the belief that anything is possible. This includes interviews with lottery winners.

In fact, Timothy Schultz is a lottery winner himself. In 1999, he won the Powerball jackpot in the USA before going back to college to study broadcast news and work on various productions. He's now combining his experience to meet and interview other people who have experienced sudden wealth or overcome the odds in life. Watch Timothy Schultz on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/c/timothyschultz .

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Nobel Prize recipient Frances Arnold joins Tim to talk about winning a Nobel Prize honor for her pioneering work in “directed evolution,” which harnesses the power of evolution to enhance products throughout society – from biofuels and pharmaceuticals, to agriculture, chemicals, paper products and more. Directed evolution was in the news this week tied to Covid jab research. We talk with Frances about her journey and her work that is changing the world for the better. This episode was originally released November 5, 2018.

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Since the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was first awarded in 1901, 117 years ago, only four women had won the honor, and in October, American Frances Arnold became the fifth.

The professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, received the honor for her pioneering work in “directed evolution.”

Frances’s work centers on the directed evolution of enzymes, proteins that serve as catalysts for chemical reactions that take place in living organisms, animals and people. In its most simple form, the process focuses on harnessing the power of natural evolution to solve problems for society.

Frances is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at Caltech.

Today, directed evolution is used in research laboratories around the world to create things from laundry detergents to biofuels to pharmaceuticals.

Enzymes created with through this process have been able to replace some toxic chemicals traditionally used in industry.

Frances shares the prize with George Smith of the University of Missouri, who created a “phage display” process for protein evolution, and Gregory Winter of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom, who used phage display for antibody evolution.

Arnold was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her undergraduate degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering is from Princeton University. Her graduate degree in chemical engineering is from UC Berkeley.

She has been at Caltech since 1986, first as a visiting associate, then as an assistant professor, and progressing to professor in 1996. In 2017, she became the Linus Pauling Professor. She became the director of the Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center at Caltech in 2013.

Frances is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
How Directed Evolution Works
Directed evolution is similar to how animal breeders mate cats or dogs to create hybrids or new breeds of animal.

To conduct directed evolution mutations are induced to DNA, or a gene, which “encodes” a particular enzyme. That mutated enzyme, along with other thousands, are produced and tested to what Frances calls a desired trait. The preferred enzymes are selected, and the process continues until the enzymes are working to achieve a desired outcome or solution.

“I copy nature’s design process. There is tremendous beauty and complexity of the biological world, but it all comes about through this one, simple, beautiful design algorithm.” – Frances Arnold

Links

Frances Arnold Wins 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Caltech
Frances H. Arnold Group
Caltech scientist is among 3 awarded Nobel Prize in chemistry for sparking ‘a revolution in evolution’, LA Times
The Latest: Nobel chemistry winner credits team at Caltech, Washington Post
Nobel winner overcame personal loss, cancer, and being a woman, NBC News

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